Mebendazole Advisory Committee
Professor Nilanthi de Silva, Chair
Professor de Silva is a professor of medical parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kelaniya in Ragama, Sri Lanka. From 2002 to 2005, she was a member of the Core Group of Experts on Soil-Transmitted Helminths and Schistosomiasis for Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries Project. Professor de Silva conducts clinical and epidemiologic research on several parasitic diseases including STH and schistosomiasis. The recipient of many research grants and awards, Professor de Silva has published more than 40 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals.
Professor David Crompton, past Chair
Professor Crompton recently retired from the University of Glasgow, UK where he had been a professor of zoology for 15 years. Currently, he is an adjunct Professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, USA, and a member of the WHO Expert Committee on General Parasitology. Professor Crompton was Head of the WHO Collaborating Center for Soil-transmitted Helminthiasis at Glasgow from 1989 to 2004, and has been a Temporary Advisor and a Rapporteur for various WHO Expert Committee Meetings since 1981. He has authored or contributed to 10 books and over 300 articles on parasitology, including helminth infections in humans.
Mr. Ibrahim Jabr, chair elect
Mr. Jabr is a child health and nutrition specialist who is currently the President of Programs of the International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works towards the elimination of blinding trachoma. At ITI, Mr. Jabr is responsible for developing the new strategy to re-orient existing programs towards increased national ownership, involvement of NGOs and bilateral agencies, and a more results-driven management style. Prior to this position, Mr. Jabr worked with UNICEF for 30 years as a Senior Program Officer and then Country Representative in several African and Asian countries.
Dr. Marco Albonico
Dr. Albonico is a medical doctor with specialization in infectious diseases who is currently a general practitioner for the Italian National Health System and Secretary General of the Ivo de Carneri Foundation. The Ivo de Carneri Foundation works to promote control strategies of parasitic diseases in developing countries and improve research in parasitology. Through the foundation, Dr. Albonico has been involved in research on school health programs in Zanzibar, Tanzania for many years. Prior to that he was an Associate Professional Officer for the Division of Communicable Diseases in WHO, during which time he oversaw the implementation of programs to control various parasitic diseases in Mauritania, Nepal, Seychelles and Tanzania. Dr. Albonico has published more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals and co-authored several book chapters and monographs on helminth infections.
Dr. Simon Brooker
Dr. Brooker is a Senior Lecturer in Tropical Disease Epidemiology in the Department of Infectious and Tropical Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr. Brooker is a health economist and an epidemiologist whose research focuses on parasitic diseases including STH, schistosomiasis and malaria. His scientific publications, which number more than 60, cover the fields of ecology, health economics, medical geography, micro-epidemiology and public health control. Dr. Brooker is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative, a Scientific Advisor for the Human Hookworm Vaccine Initiative and Technical Advisor to the Vector Control Division of the Ugandan Ministry of Health.
Mr. Peter Lochery
Mr. Lochery is the Water Team Leader in the Water, Sanitation and Environmental Health Cluster of CARE where he is responsible for developing strategies to ensure that water projects implemented by CARE country staff have a sustainable impact on the health and well-being of the beneficiary population. Mr. Lochery has more than 20 years experience in water and sanitation programming which includes his experience at CARE as well as the UNDP-World Bank Water and Sanitation Program, in the Middle East, West Africa and South Asia. He represents CARE as a founding board member of the Millennium Water Alliance and as a partner in the Center for Global Safe Water at Emory University. He is also a founding board member of the Water Advocates.
Professor Michael Wilson
Professor Wilson is the Deputy Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana, Legon. As a medical parasitologist, Professor Wilson’s career has been focused on research and technical support to parasite control programs in West Africa, including the West African Center for International Parasite Control (WACIPAC), a component of NMIMR, for which he currently serves as the Deputy Director. WACIPAC promotes the philosophy of the Global Parasite Control Initiative (commonly called the Hashimoto Initiative), which uses treatment of soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis in schools as a means of gaining entry into communities for a broader health program. Professor Wilson has more than 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books.
Dr. Susan Zimicki
Dr. Zimicki is a demographer with almost 30 years of experience in child health, child survival, and health behavior change in various countries around the world. She is currently a Senior Program Officer at the Academy for Educational Development (AED) for which she plays a technical advisory role to the USAID Global Avian Influenza Behavior Change and Communications Support Activity. She is also the Director of the AED Infectious Diseases Initiative and was the Director of the CHANGE Project which identified, developed and evaluated behavior change interventions that can be applied at multiple levels to improve health behaviors. Dr. Zimicki is Chair of the Task Force on Intervention Research at the UNICEF/UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) as well as member of the TDR Task Force on Social, Economic and Behavioral Research.